Crews protected themselves with waders as they marched through the swamp, bushland, and undergrowth four kilometres southwest of the New South Wales town.

An 800 square metre patch of wetland was searched while Strike Force Rosann detectives followed up intelligence on a ‘high risk’ person of interest.

The site, on the corner of Batar Creek Road and Cedar Loggers Lane, would have been too far for William to have walked from his grandma’s house on his own, detectives believed, but they said someone could have taken him there.